{"id":39301,"date":"2026-07-15T04:19:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Boston-Celtics-head-coach-shares-his-takeaways-from-MMA-201907"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:19:02","slug":"boston-celtics-head-coach-shares-his-takeaways-from-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/boston-celtics-head-coach-shares-his-takeaways-from-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Celtics head coach shares his takeaways from MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla believes there are
\ncorrelations between mixed martial arts and basketball.<\/p>\n

Mazzulla, who\u2019s attended several
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> events, was recently seen
\ntraining MMA with esteemed coach Eric Nicksick at
\nXtreme Couture<\/a> in Las Vegas. He has revealed that he looks up
\nMMA gyms to train at while traveling through different cities
\nduring the NBA season.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Joe Mazzulla uses MMA coaching practices in the NBA<\/h2>\n

Mazzulla believes MMA helps him build a fighter mentality, which is
\nrequired while taking on rival NBA teams in enemy territories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just keeps you fresh, mentally and physically, so that
\nwhen I’m helping the team, I have a little bit of that fighter
\nmentality,\u201d Mazzulla told Ariel Helwani. \u201cIt just helps grow a
\nlittle bit of an edge, and every little bit helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mazzulla is also taking specific inputs from Nicksick about
\ncommunicating with athletes. He believes there are similarities
\nbetween MMA and basketball in terms of coaches communicating with
\nthe players and is learning Nicksick\u2019s techniques of in-game
\ncommunication amidst all the chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s interesting in the in-fight communication,\u201d
\nMazzulla added. \u201cI think communication can be distracting. I ask
\nEric a lot about what his communication is during the round\u2026
\nThere’s a timeout component in communication, but also in-game
\ncommunication… I think one of the hardest things in coaching is
\nto relay, in a simple way, what you see to the players so that they
\ncan see it simply and execute. I think Eric does a great job of
\nthat.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

It’s pretty remarkable that an NBA head
\ncoach is going out of his way to find MMA gyms to train at while on
\nthe road during the season:<\/p>\n

“I think it just keeps you fresh, mentally and physically, so that
\nwhen I’m helping the team, I have a little bit of that fighter
\nmentality. It\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/QhDZmK1h8e<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
\nJuly 14, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center>
\n

<\/p>\n
\n

I’ve never heard of a head coach seeking out
\nan MMA coach to learn about their communication strategy between
\nrounds and during a fight. Really insightful.<\/p>\n

“I think communication can be distracting. I ask @Eric_XCMMA<\/a> a
\nlot about what his communication is during the round.\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/zsfp2p0I1t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
\nJuly 14, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla believes there are correlations between mixed martial arts and basketball. Mazzulla, who\u2019s attended several Ultimate Fighting Championship events, was recently seen training MMA with esteemed coach Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas. He has revealed that he looks up MMA gyms to train at while traveling through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}